To help out Littlehawk's quote way back on July 9, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." is from Samuel Johnson, (1709-1784), quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson

I've been collecting quotes like that since Bush took the reins of power. There are quite a few from the great minds of our past.

Abraham Lincoln: Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

John Adams: Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.

Abraham Lincoln: To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.

Alan Corenk: Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear.

Aldous Huxley: At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religous or political ideas.

Alfred E. Wiggam: A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time.

Alphonse Daudet: Hatred - the anger of the weak.

Ambrose Bierce (In The Devil's Dictionary): In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.

Ambrose Bierce (Also in The Devil's Dictionary): Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.

Anatole France: If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

Bertrand Russell: Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man.

H. H. Williams: Furious activity is no substitute for understanding.

Blaise Pascal: Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.

Bruce Barton: Conceit is God's gift to little men.

Charles Darwin: Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.

Dalai Lama: If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Dan Barker: Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits.

Daniel Webster: A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.

David Broder: Anybody who wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.

Don Marquis: If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.

Dwight D. Eisenhower: Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

Earl Warren: It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties which make the defense of our nation worthwhile.

Edgar Watson Howe: Americans detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies.

Edward Abbey: One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.

Edward R. Murrow: When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.

This is just a sample of what I have. Some very intellegent people have said some very intellegent things. Too bad nobody brings it up now and again in the media.